Vietnamese Student's Language App Wins Top Prize at Harvard

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Photo: VN Express

 

Vietnamese graduate student Pham Hong Linh, a master's candidate in design engineering at Harvard University, achieved a remarkable feat by winning first prize in Harvard's New Venture Competition. Her creation, LEXI, is an AI-based app designed to assist immigrants in communicating with medical personnel, securing her a $75,000 cash award.

 

Linh is the first Vietnamese international student to clinch the top award in the competition’s 25-year history. Her journey to developing LEXI stemmed from personal motivations—envisioning a tool that could aid her mother, who is not fluent in English, in navigating medical settings independently.

 

All team members, sharing the immigrant experience, focused on addressing the language barrier in healthcare, particularly for older non-English speaking individuals. Linh's extensive research involved visits to over 20 Boston healthcare facilities, interacting directly with medical staff and patients to gauge language-related challenges.

 

She discovered a glaring need for accurate medical translation tools, as existing apps often fail to handle specialized terminology, potentially leading to patient discomfort and misdiagnosis. LEXI, developed over three months, caters to six common languages in Massachusetts: Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Chinese, French, and Russian. Collaboration with healthcare professionals facilitated the creation of a robust medical term database.

 

 

 

Originally a class project, LEXI evolved into a startup, gaining recognition with a gold award at the iF Design Award before highlighting its potential at Harvard's competition. This victory signifies a significant quality endorsement, boosting Linh's pursuit of investors.

 

Dr. Lee Kaplan of the University of Miami lauds LEXI's accurate and user-friendly interface, emphasizing its critical role in emergency situations where interpreters are unavailable.

 

In recognition of her entrepreneurial spirit, Harvard named Linh its "Female Founder of the Year" on April 4. Aspiring to expand LEXI's capabilities to cover rarer languages, Linh continues to refine her app with hopes of widespread hospital adoption, reinforcing her commitment to bridging communication gaps in healthcare, reported VN Express.

 

-- 2025-04-09

 

 

[steven100]

well done Pham Hong Linh,  you've really done an excellent job with LEXI,   you deserve every bit of winning.  I am sure it will benefit hundreds if not thousands of immigrants in the years that follow.  

 

a great story ....